When the asura make things, it’s not as much an exercise of craft or dexterity as it is an act of will—ambition made manifest in stone and metal. Every asuran artifact bears the imprint of their ancient masters of elemental energies. Blind adherents to ancient traditions, however, they are not: if something can be done better, they’re on it yesterday.
Our designs for asuran architecture draw heavily from ancient Hindu temples: massive stone columns, intricate, masterful carvings, and a sense of being inside a mountain. I have a particular fascination with architectural spaces that are defined by massive forms, and this plays in perfectly with the asuran penchant for flexing their mastery of stone. As well as carving it, they imbue stone with (or coax out of latency) a vital energy to do their bidding—be that a battling golem, an energy-multiplying pyramid, or a floating drink coaster.
Most of my environment concepts start out like this piece (below) – dozens of thumbnail drawings feeling out relationships of light, space, atmosphere, mass, and such. They can be digital or traditional, but digital suited the subtleties of this asura golem factory better.
It is no great effort for the asura to make anything they want out of stone and energy, hence their lavishly ornamented and levitated urban infrastructure. The ornamentation is also part of the magic, being a kind of inscribed incantation that imbues the objects with their absolute obedience to the asura’s will. It’s almost as though they built their world out of giant, magical computer chips—every motif performs a role in the channeling of vital energy. (Don’t try to figure out any patterns, though—this is stagecraft, after all.)
Once I’ve gotten familiar with the world I want to explore, I’ll start doodling designs for specific props. I’ve got stacks and stacks of pages like these asura lab columns (below) – it’s most of what I do. It doesn’t look good on tee-shirts, but it’s very important.
In terms of the role of decorative motifs, asuran tools and machines are little different from their architecture, though they are more dynamically energetic, with a shift in material distribution to accommodate this perception. Asura are mad scientists, so I’ve made sure there are plenty of classically archetypal forms among their artifacts. Electricity, or some magic very like it, figures heavily in their technology, so I draw from shapes seen in electrical substations, stacked insulators, Tesla coils, Van de Graaff generators, early particle accelerators, Jacob’s ladders—basically anything you’d see in a Frankenstein-type movie from the 1950s.
I do work in color, mostly during the beginning of an area’s development as we’re establishing motifs and palettes and such. After that’s set, it’s much more economical to explore designs in grayscale. Sometimes, though, I just want to play with colors regardless, like in this asura piece (below).
I want their intentions to be clear: mere tinkering goblins, they are not. The asura are mad with ambition to harness the power of the planet, and they have all the best tools with which to do it. When you play as an asura, I want you to feel the asura’s indomitable sense of destiny, with the world at your feet and the power of Tyria’s deepest, primordial rock at your command.
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Well, we're usually pretty much on top of the official news (just like you, we're really dedicated to the game). Sometimes we miss an interview or reveal on other (community or gaming) sites, though, so by all means do let us know if you find something that we've missed. And maybe you can help out other members with questions, if you happen to know the answers. Other than that, just enjoy yourself and participate in discussions or whatever you feel like. And stuff like stories, character concepts etc are also always welcome
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